Wire Wrapped Bird Nest Pendant

Apr 18, 2014

I love nature, especially anything having to do with birds and actually have several nests sitting in my studio window. Two are wren’s nests that mom removed from her hanging planters after the little wren family flew the nest. The other nest is one I found that fell from a tree in our front yard. I even have two bird baths outside my window and enjoy the daily battles of a Blue Jay and Mockingbird trying to claim its ownership.

Since I’ve started making jewelry pieces I decided to include my love of nature in some of my creations. Wire wrapping is a fun and so simple technique to do once you get the hang of it. At first you feel like you are all thumbs but then all of a sudden it clicks and working with wire and the tools needed becomes a thoughtless task.

Making a wire wrapped bird nest is super simple. To make a nest about the size of a quarter like the one shown below, cut a piece of wire about 3 feet in length.

For this nest, I used 20 gauge aluminum colored wire because it’s very easy to bend. I also use 22 & 24 gauge silver plated wire which works well. If you use 16 gauge silver plated wire it is going to be pretty stiff and harder to mold into shape. You can use the 16 gauge wire but I wouldn’t use this the first time you try to make your bird nest.

Once you have your wire cut, string 3 beads onto one end of the wire leaving about two inches of wire on the end. Take the beads and bend them so they form a small circle as shown in the center of the nest.

Twist the two inch wire end around the wire at the base of the first bead you strung onto the wire. Now simply start wrapping the wire around the bottom of the beads several times to create the bottom of the nest. Next start wrapping the wire around the sides of the beads and threading the wire in and out of the wire circle (nest) as it is being created, threading the wire helps keep the wrapped wire in place. Once you have all the wire wrapped around the beads, using pliers bend the wire here and there to create bent twigs.

I was originally going to put the nest onto a cuff but then I decided to make it into a pendant. I cannot wait to wear this.

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About Lisa M. Pace

My second book, “Delight In The Seasons,” was published in January of 2012. My third tech­nique-based book, “Delight In The Art of Col­lage”, is sched­uled for pub­li­ca­tion in Jan­u­ary 2014 by North Light Books/F+W Media Inc .